The Brewers Association (BA) announced the winners of the 2020 Great American Beer Festival medal winners Friday night. Overall, the BA awarded 272 medals to 240 breweries during the ceremony.

Hard seltzers, a Michelob Ultra challenger and a strong push for cans were among the key takeaways from Heineken USA’s national sales meeting held virtually Thursday across three regions.

Boston Beer Company’s annual Great American Beer Festival brunch this year was, of course, physically distant. It was also less boozy than previous years. The latter point was on purpose. Among Boston Beer’s big innovations for 2021 are Samuel Adams Just the Haze IPA and Dogfish Head Lemon Quest, both non-alcoholic offerings.

Constellation Brands and WWE this week announced a partnership to make Mexican import brand Victoria the “Official Beer of SummerSlam,” the wrestling promotion’s second largest event of the year slated for August 2021.

Another major brewer is teaming up with a non-alcoholic beverage maker to create a hard seltzer. Heineken USA and AriZona Beverages’ Hornell Brewing Company are working together to launch AriZona Sun Rise Hard Seltzer nationwide in the first quarter of 2021.

Ballast Point Brewing Company today announced the indefinite closure of its Chicago brewpub, effective October 24, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Molson Coors Beverage Company’s craft beer division, Tenth and Blake, turned 10 on October 6. The division’s president, Paul Verdu, discussed the performance of Tenth and Blake’s craft brands, as well as a recently launched scholarship fund for Black, Indigenous, people of color and LGBTQ students looking to enter the craft brewing industry.

The Boston Beer Company has added Dogfish Head co-founder Sam Calagione and Snap Inc. (Snapchat) chairman Michael Lynton to the company’s board of directors. Philadelphia-headquartered GoPuff, essentially an on-demand delivery service for products ranging from snacks to alcohol, recently completed a $380 million funding round that takes the company’s valuation to $3.9 billion. And more news bites.

The priorities for Brewery Ommegang in 2021 look a lot different than the Belgian-inspired beers for which the Cooperstown, New York-based craft brewery is most known. Those priorities include the Neon family of IPAs, a nationwide relaunch of Idyll Days Pilsner and an old favorite in a new package, Three Philosophers cans.

The three-tier distribution system is “under attack from all sides” and wholesalers should work to strengthen franchise laws that lock suppliers into nearly unbreakable contracts with their distributor partners. That was one of the messages from Patrick Blach, the incoming chairman of the National Beer Wholesalers, during his introductory speech Tuesday at the trade group’s 83rd Annual Convention.

The Pabst Blue Ribbon name is now attached to a new non-alcoholic, THC-infused, lemon-flavored seltzer. The Los Angeles-based beer manufacturer’s PR firm today announced the formation of Pabst Labs, a licensed cannabis company based in Los Angeles, as well as the launch of a non-alcoholic, THC-infused, lemon-flavored seltzer, Pabst Blue Ribbon Cannabis Infused Seltzer, in California.

Kansas City’s Boulevard Brewing Company is back in black in 2020. The launch of Quirk Spiked & Sparkling hard seltzer, as well as the addition of 16 oz. can 4-packs of Tank 7, a strong sophomore year for Space Camper IPA and a resurgence of Unfiltered Wheat in off-premise retailers as consumers stocked their fridges… Read more »

The National Beer Wholesalers Association’s (NBWA) 83rd Annual Convention kicked off today with a celebration of beer wholesalers’ work during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as an outline of perceived threats to the three-tier distribution system.

The month of August was Boulevard Brewing Company’s “single best month ever,” even with the the company’s on-premise business cut in half, Duvel USA president Jeff Krum told Brewbound. In August, Boulevard shipped 19,000 barrels of product, which Duvel USA VP of sales Bobby Dykstra said was tied for the company’s biggest volume month ever, “but in revenue, blew past any month in our history.”